Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer science and, more specifically, to techniques for using controlled natural language to capture design intent for computer-aided design.
Description of the Related Art
Designers use computer-aided design (CAD) systems to assist in developing solutions to design problems. Among other things, CAD systems provide complex functions to explore design solutions and support design modeling at the direction of the designer. In general, CAD systems are powerful tools that can significantly shorten product development cycles.
Existing CAD systems mainly support the analysis and modeling of design solutions. One drawback of conventional CAD systems is that the design solutions must be generated by the designers in advance. Some CAD systems have also been developed to assist in finding solutions for design problems. These systems may leverage existing design solutions as reference solutions. Another drawback of such conventional systems is that designers must thoroughly understand the interface framework and use-specific inputs of the system that can be used by the designers to retrieve the proper solutions for their given design problems. Such requirements can be quite challenging for designers and oftentimes require designers to spend an inordinate amount of time learning and managing the interface and system inputs instead of focusing on the design problems at hand.
As the foregoing illustrates, there is a need in the art for more effective techniques for developing solutions to design problems using CAD systems.